Ordering and filling a beverage order at a quick or full serve restaurant often may not be a managed task. A crew member simply may hand a consumer an empty cup. The consumer then has to use a self serve beverage dispenser to select and fill the cup. The quick or full serve restaurant generally has no way of knowing which beverage product the consumer selected or how many times the consumer refilled the cup. The quick or full serve restaurant also may have no way of linking the consumer's beverage selections to the original food and beverage order. As such, there is little opportunity to manage and collect information related to consumer beverage consumption in a self server beverage environment.
Moreover, the crew member may fill the cup with the wrong beverage, may associate the filled cup with the incorrect order, or simply may misinterpret the consumer's selection while trying to execute simultaneous orders. When a consumer orders several different beverages for a family or a group of friends, no one may know which drink belongs to whom. Looking inside the cup may be of no help as many beverages are the same color. One then needs to sip the different drinks to determine which beverages are which.
A crew member in a quick or full serve restaurant environment also may need two hands to operate the beverage dispenser. Such two handed operation may slow down the serving time by the crew member. In this regard, having to stop long enough to navigate a graphical user interface to select a beverage type from a beverage menu and then position and hold a cup while filling may take an extended period of time. Such time may negatively impact the rate at which consumers may be serviced by the crew member.
Another issue is that the crew member may have to put down what he or she is carrying to free a hand to operate the beverage dispenser. Space may be at a premium in quick or full serve restaurant environments. Having to put down food orders to fill beverages may lead to awkwardly having to stack food, place food where it does not belong, and/or balance food trays so as to free both hands to select and fill the beverage cups.
There thus may be a need for a method of managing orders and dispensing beverages in a quick or full serve restaurant environment. In this regard, food and beverage order speed and accuracy may need to be improved so as to satisfy the consumer. There also may be a need to provide a consumer interface that increases the usability of a beverage dispenser for children and other consumers as well as increases the usability of beverage dispensers for crew members. There also may be a need to better inform consumers of what is in the consumer's cup, particularly when a consumer orders several different kinds of beverages at the same time. There also may be a need to increase the speed and efficiency of the crew member in selecting and filling the beverage cups.